The beginning of the end?…

Much like the tectonic plates of the earth’s crust, something deep in my being has been shifting, grinding and truthfully causing me some pain.  This grinding has been noticeably more uncomfortable over the past few months.  Of course I could say that similar to the frog who is placed in cold water which is slowly heated up, I have been in a giant kettle and someone, God, has been gradually turning up the heat on me and it hasn’t been until these past couple of months that I’ve thought to myself, “wow, I’m starting to feel a little bit uncomfortable…”

Let me flush this out a bit for all two of you who actually read this mess of words called a blog…  In fact, I’ll use this blog as my example.  I’ll frame it using some, perhaps, familiar imagery: Here I am comfortable, I am an individual, I am sitting alone in my office, I don’t really have to worry about “getting my hands dirty,” and for lack of a better phrase, it is here that I can justify my to-do list…  Now, you sort of get the idea.

Back to my original image.  Something is me is causing pain, the water is gradually getting warmer.  As I have slowly and by far, not perfectly, begun to understand God, through scripture, the theme I am always drawn into is, redemption.  I believe with all my heart that God is a redemptive God whose ultimate goal is to bring all creation back into right relationship with him.  I also believe that he has called me to participate with him in bringing about that redemptive plan.

And it is at this point where, sitting here in my office, blogging, I am acutely aware of the water boiling around me.  I am, in sitting here, alone, in front of my computer in my office, that I am doing the very thing I despise.  And it is with this question that I end my post today…

If God calls me, as a child of his, created in his image, called to be holy as he is holy, a baptized believer in his ultimate supremacy, to participate with him in carrying out his will for this world, how truly redemptive am I being writing these words on this blog?…

Service…

Often I find myself asking, “Why is it important for me to serve others in the kingdom of God?” I am not suggesting that service is inherently good or evil, I just wonder, sometimes, why should I do it? In particular, does it matter who I serve.

Consider these words from Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice by Dallas Willard.

Serving those who never thank us and doing it for the love of Jesus can retrain us against our desire to be noticed or appreciated.

That statement is strikingly similar to some words of Christ in Luke that say,

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even the sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to “sinners,” expecting to be repaid in full…

These words lead me to an often uncomfortable place. However, those places are precisely where the heart of God leads us. I don’t think Jesus spent the majority of his time here on earth with the rejects of society simply because he wanted to give them extra attention. It is in the taboo places of filth, scum, sickness and ungratefulness that Christ leads us.

Not because that is where we are “supposed” to be to “save their souls,” but it is in those places that we lose ourselves. My sweet hair, shiny new kicks and righteous threads don’t mean a thing. Christ Jesus draws us to those places so that he can lay us bare in the silliness of our self-righteous egos.

All that to say, I’m probably the worst of them all…